Iconses and PotO spoilery musings
Dec. 2nd, 2004 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wordinistaAs mentioned earlier, here's a spiffy collection of the Phantom of the Opera icons I was playing around with yesterday.
If you WANT any of them, please feel free. I only ask that you don't hotlink to the images, and that I'm credited (and that's only because I make an effort to credit people when I get icons from THEM).
The only one that doesn't reference PotO directly is "Blood was its Avatar and its seal," which is from "The Masque of the Red Death." It's still a PotO reference, just not a blatant one. Everything else -- either lyrics or lines from the musical. *huggles libretto*
Now, random rantage about the story itself. There was one thing that always, always, ALWAYS bothered me about Christine, and that's how she just never seemed to know in which direction her head was going.
We've got this girl, this ingenue, and she's being tutored by the "Angel of Music" (the Phantom, basically), and she believes that this angel has been sent by her dead father to watch over her and to help her. Works in theory, right? And by the time the song "Angel of Music" comes around, it seems evident that she's developed a little crush on her tutor. Again, not entirely shocking that a young woman would develop feelings for someone in an authority position, and someone with talent whom she admires and respects for that talent. There's also a bit of a father vibe there -- again, understandable.
And then, later (after "Music of the Night"), she's in the underground lair, and has what seems to be a moment of... well, romanticized naivete, when she does a very stupid thing and tears off his mask. And he freaks out -- reasonably so, in my opinion.
So, Carlotta has her little frog incident during "Il Muto," and Christine is given the role of the Countess after the... incident (which, btw, is one of my favorite moments -- I love the ballet from Act III of the opera). In the madness and mayhem, and presumably before the has to go on stage again as the Countess, Christine and Raoul go to the roof where she is absolutely, positively convinced that the Phantom will kill her if given the opportunity.
...Huh?
I mean, okay, sure -- by this point he's killed Joseph Buquet, but that's because he was telling tall (and not very flattering) tales about the Phantom, so he was kind of piqued.
But it seems like she's afraid of him now only because she saw his face:
Can I ever forget that sight? Can I ever escape from that face? So distorted, deformed, it was hardly a face in that darkness...
But then she's all about the music:
But his voice filled my spirit with a strange, sweet sound / In that night there was music in my mind / And through music my soul began to soar! / And I heard as I'd never heard before...
So, okay -- conflicted. She finds him disgusting, but he's still her Angel of Music. But THEN -- then she contradicts herself again:
Yet in his eyes / all the sadness of the world / Those pleading eyes / that both threaten and adore...
She wasn't afraid of him until she realized what/who he was. And for some reason, this annoys me. Possibly because I think Raoul is a pansy of epic proportions, but that's just me. I'm not saying that Christine should be madly in love with the Phantom and forsake all others, because then we wouldn't have the conflict in the plot. I've just always been bothered by her rapid capitulation.
Of course, she... I don't know... recapitulates in the final scenes. Sort of. I've always wondered if she did what she did to save Raoul's life, or if she really DID feel sympathy for the Phantom --
Pitiful creature of darkness / what kind of life have you known? / God give me courage to show you / you are not alone...
*sigh* But I do love that kiss. And the look on Raoul's face. ^__~
I read the novel ages ago in high school, and perhaps that is where my annoyance with Christine was born. I'm not sure -- I'd have to read it again.
If you WANT any of them, please feel free. I only ask that you don't hotlink to the images, and that I'm credited (and that's only because I make an effort to credit people when I get icons from THEM).
The only one that doesn't reference PotO directly is "Blood was its Avatar and its seal," which is from "The Masque of the Red Death." It's still a PotO reference, just not a blatant one. Everything else -- either lyrics or lines from the musical. *huggles libretto*
Now, random rantage about the story itself. There was one thing that always, always, ALWAYS bothered me about Christine, and that's how she just never seemed to know in which direction her head was going.
We've got this girl, this ingenue, and she's being tutored by the "Angel of Music" (the Phantom, basically), and she believes that this angel has been sent by her dead father to watch over her and to help her. Works in theory, right? And by the time the song "Angel of Music" comes around, it seems evident that she's developed a little crush on her tutor. Again, not entirely shocking that a young woman would develop feelings for someone in an authority position, and someone with talent whom she admires and respects for that talent. There's also a bit of a father vibe there -- again, understandable.
And then, later (after "Music of the Night"), she's in the underground lair, and has what seems to be a moment of... well, romanticized naivete, when she does a very stupid thing and tears off his mask. And he freaks out -- reasonably so, in my opinion.
So, Carlotta has her little frog incident during "Il Muto," and Christine is given the role of the Countess after the... incident (which, btw, is one of my favorite moments -- I love the ballet from Act III of the opera). In the madness and mayhem, and presumably before the has to go on stage again as the Countess, Christine and Raoul go to the roof where she is absolutely, positively convinced that the Phantom will kill her if given the opportunity.
...Huh?
I mean, okay, sure -- by this point he's killed Joseph Buquet, but that's because he was telling tall (and not very flattering) tales about the Phantom, so he was kind of piqued.
But it seems like she's afraid of him now only because she saw his face:
Can I ever forget that sight? Can I ever escape from that face? So distorted, deformed, it was hardly a face in that darkness...
But then she's all about the music:
But his voice filled my spirit with a strange, sweet sound / In that night there was music in my mind / And through music my soul began to soar! / And I heard as I'd never heard before...
So, okay -- conflicted. She finds him disgusting, but he's still her Angel of Music. But THEN -- then she contradicts herself again:
Yet in his eyes / all the sadness of the world / Those pleading eyes / that both threaten and adore...
She wasn't afraid of him until she realized what/who he was. And for some reason, this annoys me. Possibly because I think Raoul is a pansy of epic proportions, but that's just me. I'm not saying that Christine should be madly in love with the Phantom and forsake all others, because then we wouldn't have the conflict in the plot. I've just always been bothered by her rapid capitulation.
Of course, she... I don't know... recapitulates in the final scenes. Sort of. I've always wondered if she did what she did to save Raoul's life, or if she really DID feel sympathy for the Phantom --
Pitiful creature of darkness / what kind of life have you known? / God give me courage to show you / you are not alone...
*sigh* But I do love that kiss. And the look on Raoul's face. ^__~
I read the novel ages ago in high school, and perhaps that is where my annoyance with Christine was born. I'm not sure -- I'd have to read it again.
